The West Midlands has lost more than 2,000 civil servants during the age of austerity policies.
Government data released today showed the number of civil servants working in our region fell from 18,130 in 2010 to 15,860 in 2016.
That is a drop of 2,270 jobs under the coalition and Conservative Governments.
The number of permanent, full-time posts was down by 16.2 per cent, from 13,040 to 10,930. But the reduction of civil service jobs in inner London, where most Government departments are based, has been just 6.8 per cent.
Birmingham Labour MP Khalid Mahmood (Perry Barr) said this makes a mockery of Government pledges to move departments, devolve powers to the regions and rebalance the economy away from the capital.
“They wanted us to set up the mayoral programme and promised a big shift in power to the region, but instead they are taking jobs away at a much faster rate. If a private employer or industry had shed 2,000 jobs in the region there would be uproar.”
Nationally there has been a 23.9 per cent drop in such posts since 2010.
But in Inner London - where most government departments and executive bodies are based - the fall has been just 6.8 per cent.
The then-coalition government pledged a ‘bonfire on the quangos’ back in 2010, abolishing 192 government agencies and merging 118 more.
The data shows, though, that it is the regions of England - rather than the capital - that has lost most heavily on tens of thousands of jobs.
Nationally, the number of full-time, permanent civil servants has fallen from 410,240 six years ago to 312,360 now.
That is a loss of 97,880 jobs.
The number of all civil servants - including part time and temporary workers - has dropped from 527,500 to 418,360, or by 109,140.
In Inner London, though, the fall has been just 3,490, from 62,660 to 59,170.
Nationally, the data shows that women make up 54.2 per cent of civil servants, but only 40 per cent of those in the most senior ranks.
Some 11.2 per cent of staff with a known ethnicity are non-white, but only 7.0 per cent at the most senior levels.
The data was published by the Office for National Statistics.
